The Prisoner: A Daring Escape into a Psychedelic Alternative World

Prisoner is a funny one-minute animated short film by the English filmmakers Brothers McLeod. In this animated detective comedy, the prisoner manages to escape from his cell into a psychedelic alternative world, but is the poor little fellow really free?

Reade Seligmann testified how he was sure that the DNA tests would clear his name. He broke into tears during his testimony, while he described finding out that he had been indicted and thinking about how he was going to manage breaking that terrible news to his mother. Immediately following the conclusion of Seligmann’s testimony, Nifong voluntarily resigned as the Durham County Prosecutor.

“The only thing worse than an al Qaeda attack would be a gay man stopping that,” quipped discharged gay military linguist Stephen Benjamin to Steven Colbert. And that pretty much sums up the core of the stupendously ignorant Republican position on gay people, as stated in the official military personnel policy regarding the Iraq war on terror.

Paul Potts, the mobil-phone salesman from South Wales, once again roused the audience members and stunned judges of the talent show “Britain’s Got Talent “with his rendition of another opera classic.

Later, it was announced that he is the winner of this round, moving on to become a finalist in the competition that is searching for an act that will perform in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance. In addition, the winner will receive a prize of $250,000. That’s a lot of cell-phones!!

“Virginia Tech Killings Report Issued: But Why are President Bush and His Aides Smiling about It?”

President Bush receives a copy of the Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy, on Wednesday, June 13, 2007, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. From left in the picture are, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, the President, and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

The Boston Globe reports this morning that a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, which has been advanced by social conservatives, was soundly defeated today by a joint session of the Massachusetts Legislature. The vote was vote 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008.

Mikita Barthman wrote in today’s edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education:

“Although they may look scary, goths tend to be unusually tolerant and peace loving. It’s a truism that, despite their fringe status, rejection of social norms, and interest in death, most of those who dress in goth styles tend to be shy and withdrawn, though not necessarily depressed. Anyone can be a goth; you don’t need to run in a pack (goths are traditionally loners). And, as teenage subcultures go, it’s unusually quiet and friendly. Goths are generally hygienic; their piercings are clean and discreet; they don’t stick dirty safety pins through their noses or ride around on motorbikes spitting and swearing.

Goth’s consistent popularity does not mean, as some curmudgeons assume, that young people today are becoming increasingly nihilistic and alienated. Anyone who feels that way doesn’t understand the essence of goth, which is really all about self-acceptance, self-expression, and creativity. Taking for granted the misery of the human condition, goth turns depression into an aesthetic, a semi-ironic pose — a perfect style for the awkward and self-conscious. Pale makeup, for both sexes, perfectly conceals bad complexions; goth clothing tends to cover, rather than display. And although its dark style was originally taken up as a backlash to the colorful disco music of the 70s, it may, in the end, be goth’s most successful feature. After all, who doesn’t look good in black?”

London after Midnight: Kiss

Some might experience this as somewhat “jolting.” It’s, as I myself don’t really like to put it, an intriguing perspective, and certainly deserves further thought and commentary. So, for the time being please consider this a draft posting, which will receive further elaboration later. Accordingly, at this point the piece is not being publicized.

Celebrations outside of the Massachussets State House in Boston on June 14, 2007. A special convening of the Congress made a nationally historic vote to kill a referendum that would have placed the Gay Marriage issue on the ballot in 2008. Photography by Darren McCollester/Getty Images.

A proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that had been advanced by social conservatives was soundly defeated today by a joint session of the Massachusetts Legislature by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008. At least 50 votes were needed to advance the measure. The vote came after House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, Senate President Therese Murray and Governor Deval Patrick conferred this morning and concluded that they had enough votes to kill the proposal.

The three leaders, along with gay rights activists, spent the last several days intensely lobbying a dozen or more state representatives and state senators who had previously supported the amendment, but who had later indicated that they were open to changing their positions. Since fewer than 50 of the state’s 200 lawmakers supported the amendment, it will not appear on the 2008 ballot, giving gay marriage advocates a major victory in their battle with social conservatives to keep same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts.

“In Massachusetts today, the freedom to marry is secure,” said a victorious Gov. Deval Patrick, who had lobbied lawmakers up until the final hours Thursday to kill the measure. As the tally was announced, the halls of the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston erupted in applause.

Just think about those numbers: With the final vote of 151 to 45, gay marriage opponents couldn’t even get 25% of the state legislators to support their amendment. One observer of this political event has stated, “That’s not a sea change in public opinion, that’s a tidal wave!”

“Yes, we have much more to do. Yes, we still have to win over those who see our loves as somehow destructive of the families we seek merely to affirm. Yes, we don’t have federal recognition of our basic civic equality. Yes, in many, many states, we have been locked out of equality for a generation, because of the politics of fear and backlash. But look how far we’ve come. From a viral holocaust to full equality – somewhere in America, in the commonwealth where American freedom was born. In two decades. This is history. What a privilege to have witnessed it.

It was driven above all by ordinary gay and lesbian couples and their families – not activists, not lobbyists, not intellectuals. Couples and their families. It was driven by a brutal, sudden realization that we were far more vulnerable than we knew. In the plague years, husbands reeled as they were denied access to their own spouses in hospitals, as they were evicted from their shared homes in the immediate aftermath of terrible grief, and refused access even to funerals by estranged and often hostile in-laws. This day is for them, for all those who were abused and maligned and cast aside because they loved another human being. It’s also for all the lesbian mothers who realized in the last two decades just how much contempt and hatred existed for their care of their own children, who lived in constant insecurity, or who, at best, had to endure erasure from visibility. It’s for gay families in Virginia today, denied dignity and protection multiple times over, enduring popular votes of meretricious contempt, and carrying on regardless, living their lives, building their relationships, cherishing their homes, caring for their kids, honoring their parents. And it’s for the countless, countless gay couples throughout human history – who for so long had to live lives in which their deepest longings and loves were denied, crushed, ignored or threatened.

The media didn’t much notice yesterday. But America changed. The world changed. And an ancient and deep wound began, ever so slightly, to heal.”

The Paris Hilton that very few really know about. Revealed for the first time here!! Exotic photographs, a French music audio tribute, and an exclusive discussion of these little known details about Paris Hilton. Only Here, Now!!